Robert C. Lautman (1923-2009) was a renowned architectural photographer born in Montana. He discovered his passion for photography in high school while working on the yearbook staff. During World War II, he served as a combat photographer in the Pacific. After the war, he opened a photography studio in Washington, D.C. around 1948. To preserve his life’s work, Lautman donated his entire photography collection to the National Building Museum. The collection contains about 50,000 items, including prints, black-and-white and color transparencies, negatives, slides, and printed materials such as correspondence, magazines, and books featuring his work.

In summer 2025, collection management intern Jasmine Do inventoried a portion of Lautman’s life’s work, from prints as early as 1949 to as late as 2006. Exploring half a century of items provided many opportunities to understand Lautman’s visual perspective and, in some cases, his interests beyond architecture.

Understanding the Items in the Collection

Following Lautman’s lead, the Museum used projects to categorize his work. Each project reveals a special part of Lautman’s technique. Some strongly represent his film process (pre-print), while others provided a keen sense of his final print selections (post-print). Other projects contain items that show his full artistic process.

The pre-print stage involves developing the film, such as negatives, transparencies, and color slides, to reveal and stabilize the photographic image. When a negative is developed, light areas in the original scene appear dark, and dark areas appear light. In contrast, transparencies and color slides allow light to pass through, directly displaying the colors and tones as they appear in reality. In Lautman’s collection, the primary difference between transparencies and color slides is size, as most color slides are mounted in 2×2-inch frames, while transparencies vary in format and dimension.

After developing the film, photographers carefully dry the film in a dust-free environment. The final step in the pre-print stage involves editing and selecting the films. Lightboxes are often used in the editing/selecting phase to evaluate the film’s quality.

The post-print stage consists of taking the selected film to either a photo lab, a darkroom to enlarge the film, or a film scanner to print. The photographer also chooses the material to print the image, whether it’s photo paper, metal, or even fabric. Other items in the collection include correspondence, magazines, and books. These are supplementary materials that helped explain why and when the project occurred.

Inventory Highlights

The Kintore Point Project (2006)

One standout project is Kintore Point, which provides an extensive portfolio of Lautman’s visual perspective. This project features around 100 items (transparencies, negatives, and photo prints) showing both pre- and post-processing stages.

The architect for Kintore Point, a contemporary waterfront estate, was Alfredo De Vido, known for his residential projects on the East Coast. De Vido collaborated with his friend and client Charles Thornton, a structural engineer famous for designing some of the world’s tallest buildings. From the photos, one can sense their close collaboration and unified vision from the built-in furniture, window treatments, and textural balance throughout the hallway and living room.

Lautman captured the solid maple details beautifully, a key feature of the design. The color transparencies show a deep understanding of color theory, while the color negatives highlight Lautman’s skill in using natural light to emphasize structural details and design precision.

The Pink House Project (1979)

Another highlight is the Pink House Project, built by Arquitectonica in the late 1970s. This project file contained approximately 160 items, primarily color slides. These slides offer insight into Lautman’s approach to color and his technique for capturing striking exteriors.

The Pink House was conceived as a study of different planes, expressed through varying shades of pink, from deep near-red to pale pink. Here, color was the star, and Lautman’s commitment to capturing it is clear in the number and quality of slides produced.

Projects Outside of Architecture

Though Lautman is best known for his architectural photography, he pursued many projects outside of architecture. He documented nature, music, and portraiture, revealing interests that extend beyond buildings. Some projects are still being identified, while others, especially the portraits, offer a clear sense of his curiosity and personal connections.

Nature Photography Projects

The project labeled “Ripples” contains only four black-and-white negatives. The images share similar angles, but each frame captures a unique water ripple. The series evokes a sense of scientific study and led to research into possible connections with hydrology or fluid dynamics programs. The file included the acronym “CIEG,” which might refer to a civil engineering program. Think you recognize these images from a textbook or publication? If so, please reach out to the Museum’s collections team at research@nbm.org.

Another project, “Ruined Gardens,” initially seemed like the work of another photographer, but it was indeed Lautman’s. This file held 32 items, mostly slides. The images feel playful yet thoughtful, showcasing Lautman’s eye for capturing essence beyond architecture, a delightful and unexpected discovery.

An envelope was found among the “Ruined Gardens” items with a note written in black ink. It reads, “This is Bob Lautman’s favorite photo he ever took. I heard him say it many times.” The item within the envelope was a negative seen below. At a glance, it appears like someone is sitting in the bottom left corner, but the figure is actually a statue. It is surprisingly refreshing how life-like this sculptural garden appears from Lautman’s perspective.

Portraits & Music Projects

Lautman photographed two well-known musicians who performed at the Washington National Cathedral. One was Paul Callaway, the prominent organist who served at the Cathedral for 38 years from 1939 to 1977. Lautman’s portrait captures Callaway at ease and in his element at the organ.

The other was Robert Barnes, an American carillonist. A carillonist is a musician who plays a carillon, an instrument consisting of 23 bells played from a keyboard. Barnes performed at the Cathedral between 1963 and 1975. The collection holds a single black-and-white print of Barnes, another relaxed, natural moment beautifully captured.

Final Reflections

Lautman was an exceptionally talented photographer, and even this small portion of his work reveals his keen eye and deep understanding of design. His process and subject choices demonstrate a thoughtful inquisitiveness, whether he was photographing portraits, nature, or architecture. This curiosity is vital to understanding Lautman, enriching the cataloging process and enhancing future interpretation and research far beyond the collection itself.

This post was written by Jasmine Do, Collections Intern during Summer 2025. To learn more about internship opportunities at the Museum, click here.

The 1925 Paris Exhibition and Its Impact

When the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts opened in Paris in 1925, it dazzled the world with its vision of modern design. Unlike the industrially focused world’s fairs of the previous century, the Paris exposition placed the decorative arts, such as architecture, furniture, jewelry, and interior design, at the heart of its celebration. The event marked a pivotal moment in design history, elevating everyday objects and setting the stage for what would become known as Art Deco.

Before World War I, the height of European design was Art Nouveau, which embraced nature and organic, plant-like forms. That style waned as World War I approached. The war itself was the first mechanized conflict and an incredibly destructive period, which inspired post-war designers to approach their work with a new perspective.

Early Art Deco emerged as an evolution of Art Nouveau. Forms became more geometric, repetitive, and machine-like. Designers began to see the machine not just as a tool of destruction but as something that could positively contribute to society. Art Deco celebrated industry and the best of what technology could offer.

At first, the movement was centered in Europe, primarily in France, but also in Germany, Belgium, and England. The United States didn’t exhibit at the Paris Exposition, but American museum and design professionals attended, took note, and brought back objects and ideas. A traveling exhibition of these works toured major U.S. museums in several cities, introducing Art Deco to American audiences.

Cultural Forces Behind Art Deco

Emerging post-World War I, machinery and industry were the major cultural forces shaping Art Deco. Architecture in the U.S. evolved quickly after these influences arrived. At first, Americans were imitating European design. However, as times shifted from the Roaring Twenties to the Great Depression in the 1930s, American designers made the style their own.

Designers took something that had been expensive and exclusive, made from precious materials, and democratized it. This trend appeared largely through industrial and product design, which was just emerging as a profession. As electricity spread into homes, consumers wanted new products such as vacuum cleaners, radios, and toasters, and designers had to decide what these objects should look like. Even during the Great Depression, many Americans had stable jobs and consumer power, and manufacturers realized design was key to selling products. That made design, and Art Deco in particular, part of everyday life.

Defining Features of Art Deco Architecture

Art Deco evolved between 1920 and 1940, moving from highly ornamented to more streamlined forms. What ties it all together is the embrace of geometry, repetition, and the machine aesthetic. The designs reflect optimism, especially during the Great Depression, by looking forward rather than back.

The style has a notable use of color, more vibrant than in earlier design movements. New materials also appeared. Post–World War I manufacturing capacity led to experimentation with materials like aluminum, chrome-plated steel, and early plastics such as Bakelite. These were strong, lightweight, and affordable, allowing high-style design to reach a wider public.

Art Deco interiors include bold geometric patterns such as zigzags, fan shapes, sunbursts, and stylized fountains or ferns. Radio City Music Hall’s carpet, with its radiating fan motif, is a classic example. Another hallmark is the use of “speed lines,” which are horizontal bands that create a sense of motion, often curving around corners. These details, whether in a railing or a doorknob, gave even small spaces a sense of dynamism.

Art Deco and Cultural Mood

Art Deco embodied optimism and accessibility. It wasn’t just new for novelty’s sake—it was forward-looking yet familiar. That balance made it appealing across classes and industries. It’s one of the few styles that feels both sophisticated and approachable. The geometry of Art Deco makes it accessible and engaging.

Art Deco is one of the few truly universal styles. It appears across architecture, furniture, fashion, transportation, and graphic design. The style unified so many aspects of the built and designed world, which is something that hasn’t been seen quite the same way since.

Art Deco’s Lasting Legacy

Art Deco’s influence is incredibly broad. In architecture, cities like Chicago, New York, Miami, and Washington, D.C., all have their own distinct interpretations of the style. It’s also found as far away as New Zealand, Europe, and Asia, with each place adapting it to local culture and landscape.

In the U.S., the style coincided with the rise of Hollywood. Cedric Gibbons, the art director at MGM, visited the Paris Exposition and brought back many ideas. His film sets in the late 1920s and 1930s helped cement Art Deco’s association with Hollywood glamour. Films from that period exported the look worldwide, influencing design internationally.

Art Deco Today

Today, Art Deco revivals are found in multifamily residential buildings, including in the D.C. area. Developments like the Park Van Ness on Connecticut Avenue, Hampden House in Bethesda, and The Waycroft in Arlington incorporate Deco-inspired elements. Many designers also blend Deco motifs into more eclectic contemporary designs.

Design trends are cyclical, and Art Deco has earned its place as a respected style. Interestingly, the term “Art Deco” didn’t even exist until the 1960s, when historians coined it from the Exposition’s full name: the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. It wasn’t until the 1980s that the style was widely celebrated again. As we mark the centennial of the 1925 Paris Exposition, revisiting Art Deco is both a celebration of its history and a recognition of its lasting influence on how we live with design today.

Meigs’s design for the Pension Bureau was conceived as both a functional office building and a monument to those who died fighting in the Civil War. He commissioned the Austro-Bohemian sculptor Caspar Buberl (1834-1899) for the structure’s centerpiece, a 1,200-foot terra cotta frieze depicting the Union Army and Navy. 

The light, airy interior and ornamented brick façade of the Bureau office contrast sharply with the Greco-Roman aesthetics that dominate Washington, D.C.’s nineteenth-century government offices. Having already proven his more traditional craftsmanship through work on the Capitol Dome, Meigs opted for a more individual aesthetic at the Pension Bureau, inspired by Antonio Sangallo’s Palazzo Farnese in Rome. This departure from the norms of civic architecture was controversial at the time, and upon completion, the Pension Bureau building was dismissed as “Meigs’s old red barn.” 

When the Pension Bureau was absorbed into the US Veterans Administration in 1930, the US General Accounting Office (GAO) took over the building. From 1930 to 1950, the new administration considered remodeling Meigs’s design or even demolishing it altogether, but public perception had changed, and its historic value had come to be appreciated. The building’s spacious Great Hall had been the host of inaugural balls for presidents including Grover Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt, and its air ventilation system was recognized as an impressive feat of early industrial engineering. 

In 1967, the Pension Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places based on a report by Chloethiel Woodard Smith, the sixth woman inaugurated to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) College of Fellows and the owner of the largest female-run architectural firm in the United States during the 1970s. In this report, Smith suggested that the building could function as the home of a future museum of the building arts. A decade later, a 1980 Act of Congress designated it as the site of the National Building Museum. 

Help us preserve this history!   

This fan is part of the Pension Building Collection, a group of artifacts uncovered during recent renovations by the General Services Administration and later transferred to the National Building Museum’s archive. The collection offers a glimpse into the everyday lives of the many employees who worked in the building over the years. The fan itself is presumed to date from the original construction in the 1880s, and while this artifact is remarkably well-preserved, dirt and dust from the last century conceal much of the beautiful handwriting on its face. 

Click here to Adopt an Artifact and help protect this legacy.   

The National Building Museum is home to the nation’s foremost archive of American architectural and design heritage. The Adopt an Artifact program allows you to directly support the proper care and preservation of objects with critical conservation needs, helping the Museum continue its mission to inspire curiosity about the world we design and build. To support this initiative, click here.   

Lead Paint

Lead paint is one of the most famous now-banned construction materials. Lead-based paints were popular in art and construction due to their density and opacity; these paints also dried more quickly, were more durable, and offered better resistance to moisture. By 1891, the National Lead Company had combined approximately twenty-five lead mining and smelting operations to become the leading producer of bulk refined white and red lead, along with lead oxides. The company sold these products almost exclusively to foundries and paint manufacturers. Despite evidence of its toxicity, lead-based paints were sold in the United States until a 1977 ban restricted its use in residential properties, public buildings, toys, and furniture.  

The Museum’s collection has several examples of lead paint, including a Devoe Lead and Zinc Paint display stand that houses fifty-seven wood or metal paint samples. Though the display stand states that this paint is “Made for Painting Houses,” this is not recommended. The Museum also has several artifacts from the Dutch Boy White Lead Paint line, made by the National Lead Company. The most helpful piece in this small collection is the paint calculator, a brochure that details how to mix lead paint, how many coats are required for best coverage, and how much a gallon of each ingredient should cost. The most dangerous piece in this collection is the one pound can of lead paste, which would have been used to mix lead-based paint. This can has never been opened and still holds white lead.  

Saw

This 10″ circular saw was originally designed in the 1970s and used to cut notches in roof beams for custom houses in California. However, this powerful saw had few safety measures and was deemed so dangerous that it was outlawed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) soon after. This saw in particular lacks a trigger that stops its circular motion when it is released; the saw will keep going even without human input. This could easily result in death, or at least heavy maiming.  

Asbestos Tiles

Asbestos is a naturally occurring, fibrous silica-based mineral that has been used as a strengthening and fireproofing material for millennia. It was most heavily mined in the late 1800s, when it started to be used extensively for construction. Being highly fire-resistant, as well as an excellent thermal and electrical insulator, it was highly sought after for residential and commercial building projects. Asbestos was used in concrete, pipes, gaskets, insulation, ceiling tiles, drywall, flooring, roofing, and even lawn furniture.  

Kentile Floors produced floor tiles with an asbestos content of up to 25%. The tiles contained a combination of whole and powdered asbestos fibers. Kentile flooring was popular because it was inexpensive and easy to install, even for a do-it-yourself homeowner. The asbestos made the tiles resistant to grease, stains, and scuff marks. Despite its desirability, it was a carcinogenic product, especially during manufacture, installation, and tear down. While the Museum’s asbestos tiles are mostly in good condition, it’s important to note that broken or degrading asbestos tiles are very dangerous to handle or breathe nearby.  

Jig Saw Junior

Though the bright colors on this BVI Jig Saw Jr. toy tool invite children to play with it, it hides a dangerous truth: there are no guardrails or guides to prevent the user from accidentally cutting through their fingers as easily as the saw cuts through its intended target of balsa wood. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was marketed to older children as a “safe, fun, constructive” toy, but this is no longer recommended.  

Cellulose Nitrate Negatives

In the Museum’s 300,000+ photograph collection, several types of photographic film are preserved. One of the most unstable types of film is called cellulose nitrate. It was most commonly used between 1910 and 1950 and, when deteriorated, can appear yellowed, stained, sticky, brittle, or powdery depending on the progression of the deterioration. This deterioration is self-induced and does not proceed at an even or predictable rate across different examples of the same material. As with all chemical deterioration, there are unwanted side effects to this breakdown: irritation of the lungs and eyes, rashes, headaches, and nausea. Finally, and most worryingly, deteriorated nitrate film is highly flammable, capable of self-combusting, and can continue to burn under water. Once started, a nitrate fire can be almost impossible to put out. 

Because the Museum’s photography collections span the past 150 years of photography technology, it certainly holds cellulose nitrate negatives. To reduce the chances of a deteriorating nitrate negative, photography collections storage has a consistently lower temperature than the rest of the museum. When these types of negatives are found and identified, the Museum takes steps to reproduce the image on the negative in another format and then deaccession and dispose of the negative safely.  

Experimentation with materials is a key element of innovation and progress within the ever-changing industry of the building arts. Sometimes these new products are game changers for the field, but often they result in mistakes and missteps. Stories of dangerous materials, and how the industry eventually shifted to safer alternatives, are an important part of the history of the built environment. But don’t worry about safety: the Museum’s collections staff are specially trained to handle and preserve these materials without risk to themselves or the artifacts. So as you explore the world of building this spooky season, remember that every safe structure stands on lessons learned from a few deadly mistakes.  

Spending time in the Collections Department reveals just how closely collections management and curating are intertwined. While collections management often focuses on organizing, storing, and tracking objects to keep them safe, curatorial thinking is essential behind the scenes as well. Decisions made during cataloging, like how to group objects, what to name them, or how to describe them, influence how these items will be understood and studied in the future.

Some accessioned collections are especially tricky to categorize. When a museum accessions a collection, it officially accepts the items into its permanent collection, assigns them a unique number, and creates a record to ensure they can be cared for and remembered. Museums often use number systems that have specific meanings to help track and organize these collections.

An accession number functions like a special code that helps a museum keep track of an object. For example, the number 2019.9.1.2 from the National Building Museum collection tells an entire story:

• 2019 indicates the object was added to the museum’s collections in the year 2019.
• 9 means it was part of the ninth group of items accepted that year.
• 1 shows it belongs to the first category or type of item in that group.
• 2 means it is the second object in that category.

The accession number helps museum staff know exactly when the object came to the museum, what group it is part of, and where it fits within the collection. Each element of the accession number acts like a clue, helping museum staff understand the object’s place in the collection. It functions like a library call number, but for museum objects. This system keeps collections organized so staff and researchers can find what they’re looking for.

It is typical for museums to use a three-part number system. In the example above, that number would be 2019.9.2. The four-part number, 2019.9.1.2, is an example of an accession number that the National Building Museum Collections Department uses when an accessioned collection is especially large or consists of a wider variety of items, making them more difficult to differentiate within the three-part number system.

Another numbering practice that museums might adopt is adding letters (a, b, c, etc.) to the end of numbers for items that belong together or are parts of a whole. This can apply to a few different scenarios, like a small box with multiple items or a single item with removable pieces. For example, if an item had multiple parts–like an award with a detachable name plate–cataloguers would add an “a” to the end of the main item’s number and a “b” to the end of the detachable part’s number. This version reads as 2019.9.1.31a and 2019.9.1.31b, helping staff members keep track of both items.

In addition to deciding how to categorize larger groups of items, such as using 2019.9.1 as the first portion of the number for 3D objects and 2019.9.2 for paper and archival pieces within the 2019.9 collection, it is important for cataloguers to use a smart system for ordering and grouping the items. For example, if there are twenty-three nearly identical granite rods within the collection, those should all be catalogued in a row. There shouldn’t be a miscellaneous belt buckle catalogued in the middle, breaking up the number flow. This level of organization makes it easier for collections staff to keep track of objects, refer to groups of objects in a numerical range, and logically rehouse or store items. It is also particularly important since collections staff often craft their own boxes and containers to store each item and group of items in a dedicated place.

Detective work and curatorial thinking are so important when determining what accession number to assign to each item in the museum’s collection. Even something as simple as writing a short object description could raise big questions. Choosing the right words to describe the object involves considering how people in the future will search for and understand it.

Working within the museum’s storage spaces offers a new perspective on how museums work. Every box and shelf holds something with a story, even if it is not on display. Making decisions about those objects–how to describe them, where to store them, and how to relate them to others–is its own form of storytelling. It demonstrates that being a curator doesn’t always mean being in the spotlight. Sometimes, it means making thoughtful choices behind the scenes.

This post was written by Isabella Quartiere, Collections Intern during Summer 2025. To learn more about internship opportunities at the Museum, click here.

Woodbury & Co, founded in 1879 in Worcester, Massachusetts, was well-known for its industrial plant aerial view drawings. Though the majority of their drawings date from 1890 to 1920, the company remained an active print-maker until the 1990s. Aerial views of industrial plants were often drawn for early advertising and corporate identity and brand purposes; these views were then reproduced as precise photo-engraved prints using patented technical methods invented by Woodbury. In 2025, Norman Brosterman donated twenty ink drawings to the Museum, which he acquired from the Woodbury family when the company closed its doors. They document a wide range of industrial architecture, particularly textile mills, in the early 1900s.  

Donor: Norman Brosterman
Image: (Top) Drawing of the Textile Dyeing Company, 2025.3.11; (Bottom) Drawing of the Franklin Electric Company, 2025.3.14

Vlastimil Koubek, a modernist architect who designed over 100 buildings primarily in the D.C. Metro area, immigrated to the United States in 1952. He originally worked as a draftsman at Emery, Roth & Sons, then in the US Army’s Army Exhibit Unit. He established Koubek Architects in 1957 and, over the course of the next fifty years, was key in more than half of the buildings constructed in the D.C. Metro region. Vlastimil’s daughter, Jana, donated his entire archive to the Museum. This material includes photography, rolled architectural drawings, and 1600ft³  of archival files from his firm’s offices.  

Donor: Jana Koubek
Image: Vlastimil Koubek’s archive in Museum collections.

An important addition to the Architectural Toys Collection, the American Girl Doll Kaya, and her associated accessories and books, offers insight into how young children, particularly girls, have been encouraged to engage with the unique built environment of indigenous peoples in what is now the United States of America. Kaya, her horse, and several accompanying accessories were given to the Museum by Fields Utz.  

Donor: Fields Utz
Image: American Girl Doll Kaya.

Part of the Pension Building’s original function, the Museum’s historic building remains a venue for inaugural events every four years. In documenting the building’s history, the permanent collection accepts materials related to the inaugural events held in the Museum’s Great Hall. This group of materials includes the menu, inaugural seal, and a napkin from the event held at the Museum in 2025.  

Donor: Special Events Department
Image: 2025 inaugural candlelight dinner menu, 2025.6.3.

A nationally recognized master of stained glass, Rowan LeCompte completed forty windows for the Washington National Cathedral over the course of his career. His estate donated materials related to two of these windows, the West Rose Creation Window and the clerestory Calling of St. Peter Window, to the Museum.  

Donor: Estate of Rowan LeCompte, Executor Jenny Barbano
Image: Study of the West Rose Creation Window in the Washington National Cathedral.

Started in Cincinnati, Ohio by two electrical engineers in 1913, Formica is now a leading powerhouse in decorative laminate products for furniture and countertops. In 2024, Formica gifted its extensive archive of pattern samples to the Museum; they built on this landmark donation by adding their line of Woodgrains and Solid Colors to the Museum’s permanent collection in 2025. In doing so, the company’s iconic contributions to interior design will be preserved permanently at the Museum.  

Donor: Formica, Inc. 
Image: Woodgrain samples.

As a longtime user of Formica laminate custom countertops, Stuart Bollock and Bollock Enterprises, Inc. generously donated several samples of Formica woodgrains and solid colors to the Museum in 2025. This donation builds on a previous donation from Bollock Enterprises, Inc. and two donations from Formica, Inc. These samples fill in gaps in previous Formica donations, providing context to the brand’s iconic history and bringing the Museum’s collection closer to full comprehensiveness.  

Donor: Stuart Bollock / Bollock Enterprises
Image: Woodgrain samples.

Following his passing, the family of architect Frederich St. Florian gave materials related to his work on the World War II Memorial to the Museum in early 2025. The donation includes sketches, drawings, renderings, correspondence, paperwork, and one 3D model of a proposed column design for the memorial itself. This material adds to the artifacts already held by the Museum from the Raymond Kaskey Collection featuring his sculpture work for the World War II Memorial, which was donated in 2013.  

Donor: Livia St. Florian
Image: National World War II Memorial detail drawing looking west towards the Lincoln Memorial, 2025.11.145.

American architect and American Institute of Architects (AIA) member William A. Wage passed this unique binder of photographs down to his daughter and son-in-law upon his passing. The binder contains eleven photographs of a brick-making operation in Miami, Oklahoma between 1917 and 1925. These process photographs supplement the Museum’s extensive American Brick Collection by advancing the understanding of historic trades work in brickmaking and the techniques involved in this important construction work.  

Donor: Blake Ross
Image: Binder showing a photograph of a brick-making operation.

The Museum is extremely grateful to these generous donors for working with us to inspire curiosity about the world we design and build. To learn more about the Museum’s permanent collection, search our online database here!

However, some objects require more than safe storage. When we come across “problem” artifacts, we take simple but effective steps to prevent deterioration and improve accessibility. Here are four preservation challenges we’ve encountered and how we addressed them.

Removing Staples, Paperclips, and Other Fasteners from Paper Materials

From the Washington National Cathedral Construction Archives Collection, a set of documents was stapled to a 1970s Southwest Tower Floor Framing Plan. These documents add important details and context to the drawing, but the staples caused damage.

The staples had oxidized, staining the paper. They also caused tears whenever the drawing was handled and scraped other documents stored nearby. We carefully removed the staples to avoid further damage. The heavily creased documents were then smoothed and weighted down for a week to flatten them. Once reasonably flat, they were scanned and added to the digital file associated with the drawing. The originals were placed in a separate folder but stored in the same drawer for easy access in the future.

Cleaning Decorative Plaster

A lion head sculpture from the Giannetti Studios Decorative Plaster Collection arrived covered in dust and debris. This piece, along with sixteen other decorative plaster elements, came directly from the studio where it was made and stored for decades. The dust discolored the plaster and obscured its carved details. It also spread through our storage room, so cleaning was necessary.

Plaster is soft and easily scratched, so we proceeded with care. We loosened the dust using a soft, clean paintbrush, avoiding contact with the metal ferrule to prevent scratching. Then we used a small, low-suction vacuum designed for artifacts to gently remove the debris. Heavily soiled areas required a second round of brushing and vacuuming. Altogether, we cleaned all 17 pieces in one afternoon. Twelve, including the lion, are now on display in our Visitor Center, safely sealed in cases to prevent future dust buildup.

Removing Tracing Paper Drawings Taped to Fiberboard

This original 1939 color pencil rendering of the planned Canon’s Residence, also from the Washington National Cathedral Construction Archives Collection, had been taped to high-acid fiberboard. Many similar drawings in the collection are heavily glued to acidic backing materials, which makes safe removal impossible. Fortunately, this one had been attached using only small amounts of tape at the edges.

After 80 years, the tape had dried out significantly. With patience and a very thin bone folder, we carefully removed it without harming the drawing. The fiberboard and tape held no information and were discarded. The drawing was scanned and placed in a new archival folder for safe storage.

Cleaning and Conserving a Metal Elevator Surround

From the Woolworth Collection, this elevator surround was removed from New York’s Woolworth Building during a recent renovation and donated to the Museum in 2018. Composed of five parts, the surround had been painted and repainted for over a century, then exposed to dust and debris in a construction zone before arriving at the Museum.

We began by removing loose dust using the same careful brushing and vacuuming method used for the plaster pieces. But restoring the piece fully required professional conservation. In preparation for display in our Visitor Center, conservator Catharine Valentour cleaned the surface, removed excess layers of paint, retouched worn areas, and applied a protective gold gilt wax. We’re thrilled to see this piece of American architectural history restored, and excited for the public to see it too.

Originally published on nbm.org in October 2019, this post has since been updated.

Feil began his architectural career as a planner for the U.S. Navy, where he developed master plans and site studies for facilities and infrastructure. He received his Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Architecture degrees from the City College of New York and a master’s in urban affairs from Virginia Tech. He was elected to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) College of Fellows in 1997 in recognition of his significant achievements in public service. In 2012, he received the Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture from AIA.  

Aside from his role as architect, Feil was also an active campaigner in U.S. policy regarding the job classification standards of architects. Between 1986–1996, he organized a campaign that resulted in the U.S. Office of Personnel Management standards to allow architects to qualify for federal managerial positions. 

Feil is best known for his work as master architect at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), where he played a pivotal role in the construction of the Terminal 2 complex in 1997, which today forms the bulk of the airport complex. This $750 million capital program involved internationally renowned architects Cesar Pelli, Bill Pedersen, and Shalom Baranes. It incorporated 49 new airplane gates as well as a 30-piece, $6 million public art program. Feil’s campus oversight was also critical to DCA’s integration with the DC public transportation network and represented the city’s first link between air transit and regional metro lines. In 2023, the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Metro line transported over 1,750,000 passengers, highlighting the crucial connectivity of Feil’s work. 

In 2004, Feil managed the proposed design and construction of a major expansion of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The 450,000 square foot design by Rafael Viñoly Architects expanded the Center’s education program, provided a new Performing Arts Museum, and greatly increased connectivity with the broader DC cultural landscape. A key focus of this plan was bridging pedestrian and bicycle circulation across the Potomac Freeway, bringing the Kennedy Center in closer dialogue with the National Mall and linking a clear path from the Capitol to the waterfront. 

Feil’s most recent high-profile project was the Dwight D. Eisenhower memorial, completed in 2017. The project, in which Feil acted as executive architect, is Frank Gehry’s first major commission in DC, although its final implementation differs considerably from the original vision, which bore Gehry’s trademark experimentalism. Today, it represents a significant development of the LBJ promenade, linking the Department of Education to the National Mall and adjacent Smithsonian buildings. 

Help us preserve this history!   

Daniel Feil’s drafting tool collection is significant not only for its role in constructing much of DC’s contemporary landscape, but also as a testament to architecture as practiced before the advent of computer-aided design (CAD). The drafting collection represents a long-time practice in the Museum’s archives of preserving not only architectural objects, but also the tools that have been historically essential in the building arts.   

Through the Museum’s Adopt an Artifact program, you can play a direct role in safeguarding this collection, which includes templates, lettering guides, symbolic stencils, compasses, and copying aids. Your support helps conserve rare and delicate objects, ensuring they’re preserved for future exhibitions, research, and generations of curious builders.   

Click here to Adopt an Artifact and help protect this legacy. 

The National Building Museum is home to the nation’s foremost archive of American architectural and design heritage. The Adopt an Artifact program allows you to directly support the proper care and preservation of objects with critical conservation needs, helping the Museum continue its mission to inspire curiosity about the world we design and build. To support this initiative, click here.   

WASHINGTON, D.C.–September 24, 2025—As cities across the United States continue to adapt to a world changed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Building Museum announces a timely and ambitious new exhibition: Coming Together: Reimagining America’s Downtowns. Opening to the public on Saturday, September 27, 2025, this exhibition explores the transformations underway in American downtowns and how communities are joining forces to shape what comes next and help cities thrive.

Curated by Uwe S. Brandes, Professor of the Practice, Urban & Regional Planning at Georgetown University, and designed by Reddymade and MGMT., Coming Together is the first of three major exhibitions of the Museum’s Future Cities initiative. This multi-year, interdisciplinary project explores the city as a hub, catalyst, essential building block, and reflection of society.

Coming Together uses case studies, data infographics, large-scale video, digital interactives, and voting activities to illustrate the vital role American cities play in the fabric of our society. It also suggests that the future of downtowns depends on collective action. By creating an engaging space for exploration, dialogue, and action, the Museum invites all audiences to consider how they can come together to help shape more inclusive, resilient, and vibrant cities.

The exhibition is organized into three distinct galleries that thematically explore the evolution of America’s downtowns capped by a ‘City Action Hall’, a dedicated space for real-time engagement. The City Action Hall is available to organizations and community groups who are working to improve cities.

The first gallery, Social Distancing, initiates visitors as it sets the historical and emotional context for the exhibition. It explores the origins of the term “downtown” which is unique to the American city and looks at how the image and identity of a city is represented by this term. It also takes a sweeping study of the current state of American downtowns and examines how a public health emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerated shifts in downtowns that were already underway.

The second and third galleries, Cities Take Charge, highlight contemporary themes, strategies, policies and tactics that American cities are advancing to reimagine and reposition their downtown districts post-pandemic to meet new demands. These galleries focus on the story of transformation, experimentation, and resilience where old office buildings become apartments, sidewalks turn into gathering places, and vacant storefronts evolve into cultural spaces.

Finally, the City Action Hall provides a flexible collaboration space within the exhibition that provides a unique venue for meetings, strategy sessions, workshops, and public programs, connecting inspiration from the exhibition with real-world planning and action.

The space includes flexible seating, AV capabilities, and a pin-up board where groups can share their outcomes, creating a dynamic setting for urban innovation. Visitors and civic leaders alike will be invited to engage with the space, making it an active hub for collaboration throughout the exhibition’s run. Groups or individuals can apply to use the City Action Hall via this form.

Aileen Fuchs, president and executive director of the National Building Museum said, “Coming Together invites visitors to reflect on how cities are evolving and to explore bold ideas for building a more inclusive, resilient, and joyful future. This exhibition reflects the National Building Museum’s commitment to being a convener of dialogue, understanding, and action as we co-create the future of the places we call home.”

Added curator Uwe S. Brandes “This is a pivotal time in the history of American cities.

The pandemic exposed vulnerabilities, but it also revealed the imagination and resilience of communities. Across the country, we’re seeing a groundswell of innovation that’s redefining what downtowns can be.”

“The exhibition itself gives physical form to our evolving understanding of our cities and their new potential post-pandemic,” said Suchi Reddy of Reddymade. “This is a space for deeply understanding our experience of public space and rethinking how we come together—across economies, geographies, and politics—to shape downtowns that truly reflect the needs and aspirations of their communities.”

Coming Togetherfeatures examples from more than 60 U.S. cities, both large and small, who have undertaken innovative efforts during the last five years to breathe new life into their downtowns.

Examples include:

• Salt Lake City, UT has seen its downtown residential population grow since the pandemic by focusing on downtown residential development.
• Washington, D.C. has invested in downtown sports and entertainment uses to offset structural changes to its economy.
• Nashville, TN has rapidly cultivated a robust tourism economy, resulting in billions of dollars of private investment.

Coming Together builds on the National Building Museum’s mission to advance understanding of the built environment and its impact on our lives. The exhibition offers visitors a deeper look at the forces shaping American downtowns today, highlighting how design, planning, and community engagement influence the places where we live, work, and connect. Whether it’s small business owners who are reviving main streets, place-management organizations who are rethinking stewardship, or cultural workers who are using art to foster connection, this aptly titled exhibitionunderscores that it is only by people coming together that we can experience urban resilience in America.

For more details about each gallery and innovations in other U.S. cities, please see the Coming Together press kit.

COMING TOGETHER SPONSORS

Coming Together was made possible with support from AARP, Enterprise + Wells Fargo, Whayne and Ursula Quin, Rooted Communities, National League of Cities, CBRE, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, and Kohn Pederson Fox Associates PC.

EXTENDED HOURS

To celebrate the opening of Coming Together, the Museum will remain open until 7 pm, on Monday, September 29, 2025.

IMAGES: Images are available HERE.

MEDIA CONTACT: Karen Baratz, karen@baratzpr.com, 240.497.1811

ABOUT THE NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM
The National Building Museum inspires curiosity about the world we design and build. We believe that understanding the impact of architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, construction, planning, and design is important for everyone. Through exhibitions, educational programs, and special events, we welcome visitors of all ages to experience stories about the built world and its power to shape our lives, our communities, and our futures. Public inquiries: 202.272.2448, info@nbm.org, or visit www.nbm.org. Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

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The National Building Museum Collections team recently catalogued and digitized a 1970s collection of architectural sketches and drawings by architect John Blatteau for a proposed building complex in the center of Paris. This new design was to be erected where Les Halles, a glass and iron structure designed by Victor Baltard, stood for a century before being demolished to great outcry by the public.

Blatteau and his associates intended to right this wrong by developing a group of buildings designed in the style of 17^th and 18^th-century architecture, which surrounds a public square with an obelisk as its focal point. While this proposed design by Blatteau and his associates was ultimately not selected, this group of sketches and drawings provides insight into the drafting and designing process for a proposal as large and culturally significant as Les Halles.

John Blatteau: A Classical Architect in Modern America

John Blatteau (b. 1943) began teaching architecture at Drexel University in 1978. He later taught at his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, for twenty-five years. In 1983, Blatteau founded his own architectural firm, John Blatteau Associates. Blatteau and his designers championed Classical and American Renaissance architecture during a time when modernism was still the preferred architectural style. He became best known for his design of the Benjamin Franklin Dining Room for the Diplomatic Reception Rooms from the 1980s and the restoration of Rigg’s Bank in Washington, D.C.

Blatteau’s Design Process

Th Museum’s collection includes a range of materials, from small sketches of building facade details to larger bird’s-eye-view drawings of individual structures and the entire complex. It also features highly detailed renderings prepared for the final project proposal. While most drawings are executed in graphite, as is common in architectural work, some incorporate color, using crayon or colored pencil to shade sections of buildings. A select few are drawn in ink and enhanced with color, possibly applied with watercolor or colored inks.

These drawings were completed primarily on drafting paper, also known as tracing paper, which is a thin, translucent material used by architects for its ability to easily layer designs. A few of the pieces in this collection consisted of multiple sheets taped together, combining several elements or additions into a single design draft.

One of the most unique pieces in this collection is 2024.3.108 (note: this number identifies the specific drawing for the Museum’s Collections tracking system), a final draft of this proposal. This drawing consists of a rectangle split into quadrants, each depicting a different aerial map view of the proposed location for the building complex. Starting from top left and moving clockwise, the maps show:

• A wide view of Paris with the included proposed design,
• The first floor with building purposes labeled (note: the first floor here is what Americans would think of as the second floor; this is labeled in accordance with European standards),
• The ground floor,
• And infrastructure.

This drawing is one of the final drafts included in the collection and is made using graphite on Mylar, a durable polyester film material often used by architects and draftsmen. This piece is especially interesting because the many other aerial view drawings in the collection do not identify the purposes of the floors in the buildings. Most of the drawings do not include any labels, and those that do simply label the name or primary commercial purpose of the building. This single piece provided the Collections team with important context, such as that the buildings to the immediate north and west of the public square contained housing above the ground floor.

Uses of Drafts Revealed

More information about the use of these drafts was revealed during the Collection team’s condition report process. This process entails close examination of the objects to identify possible issues that may require conservation or specific care to prevent further deterioration. In the inspection of some of the large final drafts, the team found small holes in each corner of the page. These holes were seen in at least four of the large Mylar pages with completed drawings. It is likely that these holes were caused by repeated use of thumb tacks to hold the designs. Given the number of these small holes and notes such as “Trim,” the team believes these were among the final drafts prepared for the proposal process, but were not the official versions submitted to the proposal committee.

Although this project was never built, comparing the early aerial view sketches with later drafts reveals how the proposal evolved. Some features, like the obelisk in the public square, remained consistent throughout, while the surrounding buildings underwent several changes before settling into their final form. Examining the entire collection offers a rare opportunity to trace the incremental changes that shaped the final design.

This post was written by Liv Eaton, Collections Intern during Summer 2025. To learn more about internship opportunities at the Museum, click here.